Kiku, The Boy Who Drew Cats
by adelineday64
Summary: A Hetalia version of the fairytale 'The Boy Who Drew Cats'


Once upon a time somewhere in Asia, there lived a little boy called Kiku Honda. He lived in a nice house with his guardian Wang Yao along with some adoptive siblings. While the other children were very helpful, all Kiku ever did was draw pictures of cats in the dirt with his stick. This strange obsession had being going on ever since he was able to clench his fists and his family couldn't stand it any longer, especially Yao.

"Kiku, you must stop drawing cats all day long! How do you expect to become a good farmer?" Yao would say to him every day.  
"I'm sorry, I'll try to stop." Kiku would always reply, with a bow.  
But no matter how hard Kiku tried, whenever he saw a cute cat pass by, he couldn't resist the urge to draw it. One minute, he would be working with his family in the rice field, the next; he would be studying its fur so as to make his pictures more realistic.  
One day, Yao decided to speak with his oldest daughter Phuong. "I am very worried about Kiku; he will never become a farmer if all he does is draw. And if he doesn't become a farmer, what will he be?"  
"He could always become a priest. Why don't you take him to a temple?" suggested Phuong.  
The next day, Yao took Kiku to a temple.  
"Good morning, venerable one. This is my son Kiku." Yao said to the elderly priest who resided there. He then went on to talk about Kiku's drawing habits and how much the boy needed a strict teacher who could instil self-discipline and diligence.  
"I understand full well your concerns. I will teach your child." said the priest when Yao had stopped talking.  
Kiku's lessons with the priest began that afternoon. He received his own box of writing tools, which included a brush, ink and an ink stone.  
"Today, we will be learning how to write the numbers." The priest informed all of the students. He used his brush to draw a single horizontal line on his paper, before showing it to them.  
"This is the number one. All you need to do is draw a single horizontal line. It should be very easy."  
All of the students wrote the character for 'one' on their sheets of paper.  
"Now I will show you all how to write the character for two..."  
Half an hour later, all of the students were learning how to write the character for 'ten'. Well, all of them except for Kiku. He found it all so easy and thus, his mind began to wonder. Without thinking, he picked up his brush again and began drawing a kitten on the page.  
Kiku was brought back down to earth by a slap across the back of his head, which was met with a few laughs from his classmates. The priest picked up the piece of paper. On it were several pictures of cats; fat ones, skinny ones, cute ones, etc.  
"If all you do is draw cats, you will never become a priest!"  
"I'm sorry, honorable sir. I'll try to stop." said Kiku, feeling immensely ashamed of himself.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried to control himself when a cat went by (there were many in this temple), he always found himself drawing them. Soon, there were pictures of cats everywhere; in his room, on the folding screens, the ceilings, walls, the ground, and rice-paper panels.  
"You will never make a good priest." The priest said sadly, shaking his head. So Kiku was sent to his room to pack up his things and leave. On the road home, he thought of how angry Yao would be and felt afraid. Then he remembered there was another temple in the village nearby and set out in the opposite direction.  
By the time he had reached the other village, it was already night time. The temple itself seemed oddly quiet. Kiku knocked but there was no answer. He pushed open the heavy door by himself and tiptoed inside. It was quite dark, so he lit his lamp and to his delight, all around him were blank folding screens. He had been holding in the urge to draw for the whole day (he'd seen at least five cats) and could not contain his excitement anymore. He grabbed his brush and ink and began drawing all over the rice-paper panels. He saved his last masterpiece for the nice looking wall at the back, which he covered with the largest and most adorable kitten he had ever drawn.  
After finishing such a masterpiece, it was only natural that a small child like him would feel tired, so he lay down on the floor to sleep. However, something made him feel uneasy, perhaps it was the fact that so many lifelike cats were now staring straight at him. He stood up, tiptoed towards a closet and curled up inside.  
"They won't be able to see me now." He thought to himself, before closing his eyes and falling asleep.  
At around midnight, Kiku was woken up by a "Rrrrrrrrr" sound. It sounded like it came from some large, fierce animal, the type that reputedly feasted on children, and even worse, he could feel that it was somewhere right outside his closet. "I should have known something was wrong if there was no one here." He thought, as he trembled in fear.  
Suddenly, he heard a "Yowl!" noise, followed by screeching, roaring, a loud thud and finally soft padding sounds. Then everything went quiet.  
Hours later, Kiku could see a ray of light shining through the narrow slit at the edge of the closet door. He carefully slid it open and peeked outside. In the middle of the room lay a gigantic rat, about the size of a cow, in a large pool of blood. As he inspected it closely, he noticed deep claw marks all over its flesh. He looked around the room; nothing else seemed to have changed. The cats were still there. He then turned to the large one he had drawn on the back wall. He didn't realize it at first, but he soon found that it was facing in the opposite direction from how he had painted it the night before.  
"Thank you, cat!" He praised it, before pressing his hands together and bowing before it. "You have saved me from a terrible fate. For as long as I live I will not be afraid of drawing cats, nor will anyone be able to stop me."  
Later, the villagers heard that the monster rat had been slain and returned to applaud Kiku as their hero. The village priest even allowed him to live in the temple for as long as he liked. And so, as Kiku grew up, he became a famous artist who drew only one thing. Cats.


End file.
